Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act

Congress has once again passed the National Defense Authorization Act. It’s the annual defense policy bill.

The act authorizes continued missile defense operations.

In 2010 the Defense Department tested its missile defense shield. The goal is to intercept any incoming warheads – most likely form Iran or North Korea. The test two years ago failed when the missile missed the dummy warhead.

So this year, Congress authorized increased funding to study what went wrong…and to fix the problems. That’s good news for Fort Greeley, which is home to one of two U.S. based missile defense systems.

The authorization calls for an increased role at the Army installation near Fairbanks, with the chance to add to the total amount of interceptor missiles there.

The bill grants the go-ahead for a Pentagon study on building a new missile defense site on the East Coast of the continental U.S.